


Follow Me Anywhere

by cosmic_llin



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Feelings, Road Trips, Skinny Dipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 09:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19423174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: ‘But… a car? I mean, Ada… do you know how to drive it?'‘Yes!’‘Really?'‘Well, all right, no, but I’ve been given a driving spell that’s apparentlyveryreliable...'Ada and Hecate go on a quest.





	Follow Me Anywhere

**Author's Note:**

> This follows on immediately from the end of Series 3.
> 
> Written for Week 1 of the Hackle Summer Trope Challenge 2019.

Later that day, when things had calmed down a little, Hecate went to her potions lab.

She was fairly certain of what she would see, but her heart still sank when she opened the door and confronted the empty space where her collection had been.

She’d built up those potions and ingredients over decades, searching and trading by correspondence and through the adverts in the backs of magazines, spending her off hours carefully mixing and distilling. She oughtn’t to be sad when everything else was all right - Indigo was restored to life and happiness, all the girls and Ada were safe, the castle was back to normal - but she couldn’t help a pang of grief. She’d worked so hard on her lab and she’d been so proud of it and now there was nothing left.

The wishing star was powerful, especially in the hands of a witch who had the skill and experience to carefully direct its magic, but even a wishing star couldn’t reconstitute magical substances of that complexity, not when they’d been disposed of with such a lack of care, torn out of reality wholesale rather than vanished or transported.

She leaned against the door jamb, her eyes flickering from one empty shelf to another. It would take years to gather such a collection again, if it was even possible.

She heard soft footsteps in the corridor behind her.

‘Ah,’ said Ada, reaching out to stroke her arm gently. ‘I was afraid of that.’

Hecate attempted a smile. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘In the grand scheme of things, it’s such a small thing to have lost. I’ve been so much luckier than I deserve.’

Her voice trembled on the last word, and the look Ada gave her was knowing. 

‘Well,’ Ada said, ‘you can’t very well teach without any potions or ingredients. We’ll make some orders, stock up in time for the new term. It’ll be a start, at least.’

‘Yes,’ Hecate said. 

The basic supplies she’d need for classes could easily be obtained, or grown in the grounds, but as for the rest… she wasn’t sure she had the heart to start all over again.

Oh well. She would think about it later. There were too many emotions crowding in on her, too much to take in at once. She pushed this one down.

* * * 

Soon after that, Hecate picked up her broom and left the castle by herself for the first time since she had been a child. 

A few days after returning, a little later in the summer, she found something odd in the courtyard.

‘Ah!’ said Ada, joining her. ‘You found it!’

Hecate frowned. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s a car, dear.’

‘Well, yes, I can see that. I mean… what is it  _ doing _ here?’

‘We’re going to drive it about.’

‘... why?’

‘It’s very simple,’ Ada said, patting the front bit of the car affectionately. ‘You need potions that cannot be easily obtained. They are also too volatile to transport by magic. You’re able to leave the grounds now, so we can just go and get the things you need - or at least make a start on it, anyway. I don’t expect we’ll manage to get the whole lot so easily. But the ones I’ve tracked down so far are too spread about for us to easily go by broom, at least without making multiple trips. So I found us something a bit different.’

‘But… a car? I mean, Ada… do you know how to drive it?’

‘Yes!’

‘Really?’

‘Well, all right, no, but I’ve been given a driving spell that’s apparently  _ very _ reliable, so we needn’t worry about that part. What do you say, Hecate?’

Hecate had known Ada for too long to be fooled by this studied casualness. She was nervous that Hecate would say no.

Things between them had changed subtly since Hecate had asked her to lift the spell. They weren’t fragile, exactly, but they were… shaped a little differently, and the two of them were still getting used to the new way they fit together. 

It was clear that Ada had arranged this to please Hecate, and she wasn’t totally certain that it would. 

‘It looks comfortable enough,’ Hecate said, peering inside the vehicle. ‘We might as well try it.’

* * *

Hecate would never have thought of this. That was one of the things she loved about Ada, her willingness to explore options outside the obvious. Another thing she loved about her was the way she made kindness into action - it would have been so easy for her to simply comfort Hecate, commiserate with her about the lost potions, and order the basic supplies needed for the next term’s teaching. But here they were, on their way to track down as many as they could of the potions Hecate had lost. When Hecate thought about it, she was almost speechless with love for Ada.

That was why she was trying very hard to ignore the fact that riding in the car made her feel terribly, terribly sick.

She’d never felt this way on a broom. Perhaps it was the noise, or the strange way the car vibrated, or the sensation of moving so fast without knowing that she was in control of it.

They’d only been travelling for the better part of an hour. They might be driving for another week yet, to get everything on the list. Hecate closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly.

The car slowed and moved to the side of the road.

‘Hecate, are you all right?’ Ada asked. ‘Not to put too fine a point on it, you look miserable.’

‘I’ve felt better…’ Hecate admitted. ‘Something about the car makes me feel rather queasy.’

‘Well, why didn’t you say? May I?’

Hecate nodded, and Ada cast an anti-nausea spell. Almost immediately she felt better. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought of it herself.

‘All right?’ Ada asked.

Hecate nodded. ‘Let’s go.’

* * *

They retrieved their first potion only a few hours after they’d left, from a witch who lived on a quiet street on the edges of a city. When they had paid her, Hecate lovingly packed the small bottle into the padded crate they’d put in the back of the car. 

She’d made a careful itinerary, taking into account the most efficient route between the many stops they had to make, as well as the relative volatility of some of the potions. She’d calculated the precise travel times and exactly where they ought to be each day. They’d made their first stop right on schedule.

* * *

The next leg was a longer drive.

Hecate had found the button that operated the little sliding door in the ceiling. They had opened all the windows. The road ahead of them was quiet, a narrow stripe through a landscape of rolling green. Ada drove - such as it was, with the spell helping things along - and Hecate sat back in the passenger seat, feeling the breeze against her skin.

Those two weeks she’d spent alone, away from the castle, she’d had complete freedom for the first time in a long time - not just the physical freedom she’d finally claimed, but freedom from the prison of guilt and shame she’d created for herself. It had been a revelation, but it had been intense - so bright, so loud, so unknown. Being here in this little car with Ada felt safe, like having a little piece of Cackle’s to hold on to.

* * *

The only witch who sold the rare purple-flushed hawkweed in a form suitable for potion making lived in the place where it grew, near the highest point of a hilly Welsh headland. The car took them up a winding road that clung to the side of the hill, and when they reached the top they could see for miles. 

When they had obtained the precious dried plant - just the smallest piece was incredibly potent when used correctly - they walked across to look at the sea. It sparkled so brightly that it was almost hard to look at. It had been so many years since Hecate had last seen the sea.

‘What shall we do now?’ Ada asked, when they had stood and looked for a while.

Hecate reviewed her mental list. ‘I think our next stop was the potion stockist on Anglesey…’

‘Yes, you’re right,’ said Ada. ‘But I more meant… should we get an ice cream first?’

* * *

The places blurred together after a while - a rush of motorways and country roads and everything in between, cities to villages to lone cottages deep in the countryside and back again, nights spent sleeping curled close in the car, spelled into a small but serviceable bedroom.

Ada liked to stop and have a look every time they saw something interesting. Going off schedule made Hecate uncomfortable, so after the first day they sat down together and rearranged the itinerary to allow for a certain amount of inbuilt frivolous timewasting. Once that was done Hecate relaxed into it, and even pointed out a few places to stop herself. They saw the Angel of the North, explored a corn maze in Lincolnshire, visited a butterfly house on the way to Weston-super-Mare, and stopped in any number of spots to admire the view - and once so that Ada could befriend some cows in a field by the road.

The crate in the back of the car filled up slowly but steadily, and with every potion and ingredient added Hecate felt a little burst of satisfaction. When they spent long stretches driving, she let her mind wander, thought about the next term’s curriculum and the latest news in the potions journals and how pleasant it would be to get back home and organise her shelves properly, everything labelled and in its right place.

* * *

Five or six days into their journey, they parked the car by the shore of a loch as the light was waning. Ada charmed the front seats of the car into one long seat so that she could slide close and put an arm around Hecate. Hecate leaned her head on Ada’s shoulder and they watched the sunset.

‘Isn’t it strange?’ said Hecate. ‘A few months ago I wouldn’t even have imagined this, and now here we are. I’ll admit, it hurt to lose my potions… but if I hadn’t, we would never have made this journey.’

‘Life is full of surprises,’ said Ada, with a deep sigh of contentment.

Idly, Hecate trailed a finger up from Ada’s knee, along the inside of her thigh. Ada shivered.

They ought to wait until they’d transformed the car properly and placed the evening’s protective spells on it, but there was nobody about, not for miles. And Hecate was starting to enjoy feeling as though she could do anything she wanted, when she wanted it.

She brushed Ada’s hair aside and kissed the corner of her jaw. Ada turned to meet Hecate’s mouth with her own.

* * *

‘I’m sorry I never told you before,’ Hecate said. ‘About Indigo.’

They were lying together, naked underneath the blanket. The night was still warm, the car window was open to the soft sounds of the loch, and through the windscreen they could see a scattering of stars. The full moon was somewhere above them.

‘It’s all right,’ Ada said peaceably.

‘I wanted to,’ Hecate said. ‘I even tried a few times. I could never get the words to come out.’

The moment she had told Ada, after circumstances had made it impossible not to, she’d braced for the worst. She’d imagined Ada’s face falling, imagined her feeling betrayed, deceived. But she’d only found sympathy in Ada’s eyes, understanding in Ada’s hand wrapping around hers. And through everything that had followed, Ada had done everything she could to help Hecate.

‘I’m glad you don’t have to keep it a secret any more,’ Ada said. ‘I hate the thought of it weighing on you, all those years. How unhappy you were…’

Hecate pressed a soft finger to Ada’s lips. ‘I wasn’t unhappy,’ she said. ‘Not all of the time. Sometimes I was so, so happy. None of that was a lie. Ada - I love our life. If everything with Indigo hadn’t happened, perhaps I would have ended up somewhere entirely different, and we never would have found each other.’

Ada sighed. ‘I’m so glad you’re staying,’ she said. ‘When I thought you might not, it almost broke my heart.’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Hecate promised. ‘Unless it’s with you.’

Ada nodded, her eyes glistening. Hecate pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head.

‘Would you follow me anywhere?’ Ada asked, after a minute of quiet.

‘You know I would,’ said Hecate.

Ada sat up, opened the car door. ‘How about into the loch?’ she asked, with a grin.

‘Ada Cackle!’

Ada was already making her way down to the water, the moonlight making her glow like a lantern. Hecate clicked her tongue and got out of the car to join her.


End file.
